Individuals with impaired memory and/or dementia, such as those with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and related dementia (ADRD), can easily become stressed, frustrated, agitated, and often angry and withdrawn when they experience failures at tasks and activities of daily living (ADLs), especially ones that they previously could undertake and complete effortlessly. For those with dementia, the inability to perform ADLs increases risk of institutionalization and loss of independent living. For caregivers, this increases their levels of stress, depression, and physical burden.
The range of therapies available today to help individuals with AD/ADRD perform activities of daily living are severely limited. Currently available pharmaceutical treatments only provide modest improvements in cognition and are accompanied by significant side effects. Further, many current strategies for treating memory impairment rely heavily on bolstering dysfunctional regions of the memory system. However, these strategies for shoring up the dysfunctional regions of the memory system can only function in the context of the progressively deteriorating region and may be effective only for a relatively short time-course of progressive diseases. In the United States, AD/ADRD affects as many as 5 million people and nearly 40% of the population aged 85 and older. Approximately 13.2 million older Americans are projected to have AD/ADRD by 2050.
Accordingly, there remains a need for new systems and methods for treating memory impairment and memory-related diseases such as AD/ADRD. This need and other needs are satisfied by the various aspects of the present disclosure.